Fuck the media

[Sheva. 5,373]

It is true though we didnt play football. we just had 11 men defending for pretty much the whole game. Ive never seen a more negative display in my life but it worked so it doesnt matter

Lol this is how most teams play when they come to the bridge.

[capriccioso 2,545]

It is true though we didnt play football. we just had 11 men defending for pretty much the whole game. Rubin Kazan seem to do this a lot against barcelona and usually get a result. Ive never seen a more negative display in my life but it worked so it doesnt matter

No offence intended Dylan, but fuck off with that. Anti football is a losers excuse. Never mind that Jose started this whole blaming of parking the bus business while with us, it is a losers excuse. Did the Persians complain to the media that the Spartans employed 'anti-war' tactics at Thermopylae? Did the ANZAC's say "Hold up, Johnny Turk, how about you be a good sport and come out of those trenches?" at Gallipolli? Did all those smaller teams who visited Stamford Bridge in the last 18 months do any different?

Why don't we all just make the goals 3 times as high and twice as wide, ban defending, tackling and marking altogether then? Defending is an integral, vital, fuck it, an all-consuming part of football. And we still scored 2 goals. The game was pulsating from start to finish, even neutrals started cheering for us so stirring was our rearguard action. Not one person would have switched off their television because of how we played, hell, most probably turned it on after we made it 2-1. Every child who saw that game today saw a display of sheer willpower, of never saying die, of never giving up no matter what the odds; they saw a performance of defiance where a vastly inferior team both numerically and skill wise said "Fuck all that, we will go out there and give this our very best".

How on earth can that be bad? We have given hope to the little man, the little club all around the world. They will look at this heroic performance and be inspired, such was the gulf in class between the two teams. It's a timely reminder that even the biggest of giants can be felled by the most unlikely, the shittest, of teams. It's a reminder of how romantic football can be, of poetic justice and all that is good in the world. For one glorious night, all of football will know; a small team from Fulham, reduced to 10 men and with only 1 recognised centre back, down 2-0, with a caretaker in the role of manager, somehow held on against the greatest team of its generation and probably better than most that preceded it; one with an absolute galaxy of superstars that would walk into any XI on the planet.

Make no mistake, this was probably one of the best games in football for the last few years. It has been nearly 8 years since the whole world was reminded, never ever write off the little guy. It was overdue. As Machiavelli once said, the ends always justify the means. In this case, both the means and the end were just perfect.

[zolayes 14,489]

It is true though we didnt play football. we just had 11 men defending for pretty much the whole game. Rubin Kazan seem to do this a lot against barcelona and usually get a result. Ive never seen a more negative display in my life but it worked so it doesnt matter

we only had TEN men for most of yesterdays game.. quite common when you play Barca

[Dylan_91 90]

No offence intended Dylan, but fuck off with that. Anti football is a losers excuse. Never mind that Jose started this whole blaming of parking the bus business while with us, it is a losers excuse. Did the Persians complain to the media that the Spartans employed 'anti-war' tactics at Thermopylae? Did the ANZAC's say "Hold up, Johnny Turk, how about you be a good sport and come out of those trenches?" at Gallipolli? Did all those smaller teams who visited Stamford Bridge in the last 18 months do any different?

Why don't we all just make the goals 3 times as high and twice as wide, ban defending, tackling and marking altogether then? Defending is an integral, vital, fuck it, an all-consuming part of football. And we still scored 2 goals. The game was pulsating from start to finish, even neutrals started cheering for us so stirring was our rearguard action. Not one person would have switched off their television because of how we played, hell, most probably turned it on after we made it 2-1. Every child who saw that game today saw a display of sheer willpower, of never saying die, of never giving up no matter what the odds; they saw a performance of defiance where a vastly inferior team both numerically and skill wise said "Fuck all that, we will go out there and give this our very best".

How on earth can that be bad? We have given hope to the little man, the little club all around the world. They will look at this heroic performance and be inspired, such was the gulf in class between the two teams. It's a timely reminder that even the biggest of giants can be felled by the most unlikely, the shittest, of teams. It's a reminder of how romantic football can be, of poetic justice and all that is good in the world. For one glorious night, all of football will know; a small team from Fulham, reduced to 10 men and with only 1 recognised centre back, down 2-0, with a caretaker in the role of manager, somehow held on against the greatest team of its generation and probably better than most that preceded it; one with an absolute galaxy of superstars that would walk into any XI on the planet.

Make no mistake, this was probably one of the best games in football for the last few years. It has been nearly 8 years since the whole world was reminded, never ever write off the little guy. It was overdue. As Machiavelli once said, the ends always justify the means. In this case, both the means and the end were just perfect.

All i said was that we played negatively. Anyone with half a brain can see this and if you cant you're delusional. A small team from fulham? Have you forgotten were one of the richest clubs in the world?

[Dylan_91 90]

Lol this is how most teams play when they come to the bridge.

Haha do you watch many games?

[Sheva. 5,373]

All i said was that we played negatively.

I know, we should have played 'positively' and lost 5-0!

Haha do you watch many games?

So how exactly do Villa, Stoke, Blackburn, and co play when they visit Stamford Bridge?

[capriccioso 2,545]

All i said was that we played negatively. Anyone with half a brain can see this and if you cant you're delusional. A small team from fulham? Have you forgotten were one of the richest clubs in the world?

The only thing negative tonight was John Terry and his blood rush, and bookings for Ramires and Ivanovic for non footballing reasons. Everything else has enriched football.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

You enter the CL to win, not to play sexy football. You think Barca or anyone in the world would give two shits if they won playing negative football? That's like saying oh I'm going to war, but I wanna look sexy so I'm going to wear my baseball cap instead of my helmet, or rather 10 helmets.

Don't worry about the media, they want to make money and there are two sides to the match. Barca fans want to read some shit too to make themselves feel better.

[Dylan_91 90]

I know, we should have played 'positively' and lost 5-0!

So how exactly do Villa, Stoke, Blackburn, and co play when they visit Stamford Bridge?

i didn't say it was a bad thing we played negatively but its a fact. we did play negatively as it was the only way we could beat barca. Im not complaining im just stating a fact. Why so defensive? And quite a lot of teams take the game to us at the bridge and i watch every chelsea game and ive never seen a team as negative as we were last night. Thats not a criticism btw its just an observation

[Sheva. 5,373]

i didn't say it was a bad thing we played negatively but its a fact. we did play negatively as it was the only way we could beat barca. Im not complaining im just stating a fact. Why so defensive?

Ahh, my bad then. I've just read a lot of shit in the past week about our defensive football against the best side in football.

Like we would have stood any chance if we didn't play that way.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Defending is just as beautiful as attacking. To defend with heart is even more beautiful.. That is all.

[Kojo 4,676]

Don't let anyone take away our performance, there was no excuses we were brilliant to come back and get to the final. Fully deserved, no controversy, no nothing, we deserved it.

[TomCFC 356]

Great article Alex, but I think the mainstream media have been pretty positive today, thankfully.

[Kez 2,727]

It's because we're not Liverpool. Who gives a fuck what the media think, this is one of the greatest nights in our history NOONE can take this away from us. If we go on to win it we'll probably be praised to rescuing English football this year. Double standards from certain people.

[Laylabelle 9,296]

Mail seemed to dis credit Torres goal..in a didnt really matter sort of way...course it bloody did!! There was still minutes to go and Barca had pretty much every player forward so easily could've scored had we not...

But mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nice to read postive reports.Not so much shite about 'negative football' cause really 10 men against Barca...you need to defend and we did that bloody well and makes a change to have that noticed.That isnt always about how attacking you are at front at the back also makes a difference

And Neville really liking the guy this season....honest really...not afraid to slate a Man U performance either when they've been shite.And his reaction

Sod the media! Probably gutted they cant write how JT is a disgrace and has affairs and cost us a place...no doubt the headlines they were going for

[LDN Blue 7,903]

All those who criticized Chelsea yesterday, know nothing about football

José - Don Fucking - Mourinho!

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Great article Alex, but I think the mainstream media have been pretty positive today, thankfully.

There have been a lot of retrospective positive comments for sure, but initially there was also a lot of criticism.

In general I think they actually want us to achieve.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Also, we did not play negatively. We played defensively. There is a difference; we in fact played positively as we only had ambitions to win the tie.